Let’s say you’re at a meeting and you notice your coworker has a new productivity tool that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It’s innovative, effective, and you know that if you had one, your productivity would skyrocket. Dreaming about the promotions, raises, and accolades in your future, you excitedly ask your coworker where they purchased this marvel of productivity technology. They give you a website address for the product, and, as soon as the meeting is over, you jump on your smartphone to place an order.
It takes a while for the site to load. “Come on, come on,” you urge it. When it finally loads, you have to figure out how to close three pop-up boxes advertising other products. They’re not optimized for mobile, so it’s difficult to close them. Once you’ve closed them all, you look for the product, but you can’t find it. You do a search, but it doesn’t return anything useful. After much trial and error, you finally find it buried on a sub-sub-page of a category that didn’t seem appropriate for the product. Finally, you get the product in your cart and try to check out, but the form fields and buttons are too small for you to be able to use them.
Giving up in frustration, you hop on your laptop and try again. The problems are different on your computer, but they still prevent you from placing your order. This whole process is definitely making you question whether the product is worth all this frustration and effort. Remembering your dreams of promotions, raises, and accolades, you call the company directly and successfully place your order.
The Cost of Poor User Experience
This company’s website offers notably poor user experience (UX). Luckily for them, you want the product badly enough that you are resolved to order it, no matter what obstacles you face.
Unfortunately, most people who visit your website will not be nearly as motivated to fulfill the reason for their visit — their objective — as imaginary “you” was to fulfill yours. Each obstacle they encounter — even minor ones — encourages them to leave the site, abandoning their objective, and potentially your organization, altogether. Good UX matters because the people who visit your website matter.
Each obstacle they encounter — even minor ones — encourages them to leave the site, abandoning their objective, and potentially your organization, altogether. Good UX matters because the people who visit your website matter.
User Experience Design
User experience design strives to provide visitors to your website with what they need, in the least frustrating way possible. A user-centered, strategic component of the website creation process, UX design involves a well-researched UX designer making strategic choices about the organization, structure, and functionality of your website.
Every decision the UX designer makes is driven by the desire to make it easy for your website visitors to fulfill their objectives, whether that’s joining your organization, making a purchase, signing up for emails, catching up on your latest news, or exploring your website.
A user-centered, strategic component of the website creation process, UX design involves a well-researched UX designer making strategic choices about the organization, structure, and functionality of your website.
The Benefits of Good User Experience
These strategic UX decisions can significantly increase your website’s effectiveness. When you reduce the effort and frustration involved in utilizing your website, website visitors are more likely to fulfill their objectives and may even stay longer to explore more content. Good user experience means your website visitors can easily find the content they seek, reducing the frequency with which they abandon their objectives and offering them a valuable, positive experience with your brand.
Good UX matters because the people who visit your website matter. They are your organization’s members or customers and your website’s good user experience supports them in their endeavors, encouraging new interactions and continued partnerships with your brand.
